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More and more republicans think colleges are harming the U.S.

A Pew Research Center Survey found that a majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (58 percent) now think that colleges and universities are having a negative impact on the United States.

An admissions letter from Harvard University was once considered cause for celebration, but in conservative households, that may be changing.

David M. Whalen, provost of Hillsdale College, a school with a conservative reputation, said he has noticed an uptick in the number of parents who send their children to Hillsdale to avoid colleges where conservative thought is met with ridicule, suppression and violence.

“The educational environment has become so distempered that, in many cases, parents are now looking elsewhere,”
Mr. Whalen
said. “In fact, more and more parents tell us at Hillsdale that they had assumed their children would go to this or that institution, but they are deeply grateful to find Hillsdale instead.”

A survey released this week by the
Washington-based Pew Research Center shows Republicans have never been more down on higher education.

Just 36 percent say the institution has a positive effect on the nation, compared with 58 percent who say it has a negative effect. Those numbers were almost reversed two years ago, when 54 percent of Republicans said higher education had a beneficial effect on the nation, compared with 37 percent who said it had a harmful effect.

Bookending those two years were massive student demonstrations that shut down the University of Missouri and Evergreen State College in Washington, with countless conservative speakers disinvited, protested or shouted down on seemingly every other campus in between.

In February, protesters clad in black masks and armed with poles, fireworks and bricks set fires and smashed windows at the University of California, Berkeley, to preempt a scheduled lecture by conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.

“Higher education has been progressively radicalizing for a long time, but recent events have brought the extent of it into high relief,”
Mr. Whalen
said. “It’s virtually beyond parody. Campus violence, suppression of speech and intellectual inquiry, and the rather haughty presumption of moral superiority undercut confidence that much of real value is going on there.”

The Pew study, which surveyed 2,504 adults from June 8 to 18 and has an error margin of 2.3 percentage points, also showed Republican opinion of higher education nose-diving among the party’s more conservative members.

Sixty-five percent of self-identified conservatives say the institution has a negative effect on the nation, compared with 29 percent who say it has a positive effect.

Of the five major institutions measured by Pew — churches, banks and financial institutions, labor unions, the national news media, and institutions of higher education — only the media were viewed more negatively by Republicans than academia.

Younger Republicans tend to view universities more favorably, but opinion about higher education is down dramatically among all age groups.

Forty-four percent of Republicans ages 18 to 49 said higher education has a positive effect on the nation, down 21 points since 2015. Just 28 percent of Republicans older than 50 said academia is beneficial to society, down 15 points since 2015.

Seventy-two percent of Democrats said colleges and universities have a positive effect on the nation, up from 65 percent in 2010.

Michael Poliakoff, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a higher education think tank based in
Washington, said opinions about academia do not fall neatly along party lines.

“Perceptive thinkers of both parties have expressed very legitimate concerns about graduates who do not have appreciable respect for the First Amendment and are unable to rationally engage with social and political views other than their own,” Mr. Poliakoff said. “Likewise, look at the issue of cost and outcomes. Employers and advocacy organizations across the political spectrum have sharpened their focus on higher education’s return on investment.”

He said thinking about the problems facing higher education in partisan terms is a “missed opportunity to talk about badly needed reforms” with bipartisan support.

If Republican views toward higher education continue to sour,
Mr. Whalen
said, then the ramifications could be significant.

“I expect the consequences of all this will be many and far-reaching,” he said. “Legislatures will restrict funding, endowments will be regulated, disciplines known for being radicalized will be taken less and less seriously while the flight to nonideological fields of study will increase, the attention paid to so-called experts in academia will continue to slide and the academic bubble will grow increasingly unreal.”

Case in point: In response to the Evergreen protests, Republican lawmakers in
Washington
proposed a bill to strip the school of its taxpayer funding.

“This is all tragic, really,”
Mr. Whalen
said, “as a genuinely noble activity is making itself an object of disdain.”

You should have majored in a social "science", you'd have had more time to mindlessly protest what CNN told you that you should be against. And you'd also have a good excuse to live in your parents basement after graduation when you couldn't get a job with that valuable degree.

I believe student loans should only be given if you are getting a degree for an in-demand field. No loans for degrees there is no demand for.

How stupid does a child and parent have to be to go into large debt for a degree in women's studies or other useless degrees. Who says to their kid, hey go get 100K in debt for a degree you can't get a job doing when you finish college. Are parents really that stupid?

I would bet that 30% of people going to college could get just as good an education and job afterwards from a Tech schools.

The parents like the kids have been fed on the "necessity" of a college education.

Doesn't excuse their stupidity for believing it.

Harvard I doubt points out that Bill Gates quit going there because he knew he could do far better on his own starting his own business than listening to pontificating "Professors", who probably never started a viable, functioning PROFITABLE business - and who would undoubtedly fail miserably if they ever had the temerity to attempt

- which none of them ever would with their secure sinecure tenure - paying them endlessly till the day they die to posit ideas they never thought up and, if seriously, mercilessly questioned probably couldn't defend or justify.

This is why I object to the labeling of for-profit institutions as "predatory". The traditional, not-for-profit schools that peddle 100K women's studies or elementary education degrees are just as predatory.

We need to revitalize Aristocracy in USA. As defined by the ancient Greeks, not the leftists. The original term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". Leftists over the ages have skewed the meaning to it's present incorrect form, which suggests inheritance as the key. Too much to write here, but - People first need to learn how to be INDEPENDENT THINKERS. That is what not only made America Great, it was the GREAT Aristocrats that made America! They MUST learn History, Business, Finance, Investing, and depending on their interest and skills, learn the trades that they want as independently as possible, and any way possible LEARN TO START BUSINESS to do what they love, and be their own boss. VERY FEW Universities teach ANY OF THIS. I learned all this and much more BEFORE I WENT (Which is what parents should teach beforehand, thus the confusion about class-inheritance.)

Most people have been brainwashed from childhood to think they are not capable of survival without a NANNY Government, Corporate-Master, or most recently Marxist Dictators! Universities have stripped away the GENERAL KNOWLEDGE that is essential, and replaced it with a minimalist "Specialized" Zombie-education, given FAKE-Confidence Class, anti-depressant medication, safe-places, in place of REAL Confidence that comes automatically when you have a REAL EDUCATION! College is fine, absolutely important, BUT it must be VERY WELL-VETTED and prepared for exactly as I outline here, and not taken for granted. In my opinion, the degree is ONLY a "License to learn." That comes from many great mentors! If you think the degree itself represents education, YOU FAILED.

Humanities and Social Justice Marxism must be RECOGNIZED and DEEPLY understood, as a CANCER, not a legitimate form of Government! All you have to do is read the Communist Manifesto to see what RADICALS you are dealing with! It's online! This is the mind of the ENEMY of America! We need to take our Universities back from the Communists before I'd advise anyone to just hand over your child. College prepares people to be corporate slaves (if they are lucky) and more than ever RADICAL Leftist Political Activists! Where do you think today's RIOTERS learned their tactics? There is no TRUE education left, as the article eludes to. I was lucky to learn BUSINESS from my family, Self-educated in Technology (Like Einstein and so many others) and then took ONLY what I needed at University and college. Most of all, I could spot PROPAGANDA the second it spewed out, and the Leftist agenda like the dark fog that it is! I knew what to ignore instinctively! I've actively passed this on! My children now have degrees, they "Played" the leftist game, put the WRONG answers, propaganda on the forms, and came out not only unscathed, but aware enough to pass it on to our next generations. It takes a lot of preparation to keep our kids from having their frontal lobes sucked out by Commies. If they don' t have that Intelligence and preparation, they will become a Leftist. That is the ultimate waste of a mind!

Yes parents are that stupid, I've been telling them for years college, as it is today, is A SCAM. Rare exceptions. The loans are part of the scam, the Politicians, Banks, and Universities get rich, the kids get skrewed because the idiot parents drank the cool-aide. Partly, I chalk-it up as "Natural Selection." Stupid parents, stupid children. In any case, the rest of us should not get the bill. The real fault beyond that is the scam itself. There needs to be a MASSIVE CLASS-ACTION law suit to the universities and lending con-artists! I can't believe no-lawyer has risen to that occasion. But make the money go back to the families that were robbed, not the lawyers/politicians pockets, as usual!

My ex earned a degree in 18th century French philosophy from a top school. There is literally nothing you can do with a degree like that, except maybe become a teacher. Later on in life, he realized it was a major middle finger to his dad, who would only pay for school if he went to that particular school. He went back to school on his own and earned a much more useful degree.

Good thing he/she was your ex! What an idiot. That is the scam I can't understand why ANYONE pays for! How about a BRILLIANT Liberal Arts Degree? Pure garbage. Those rags only prove you've been brainwashed in Marx ideology, and are now qualified to be a subject and burden of the DEEP-STATE!!

I agree to disagree, to a degree about what you construe the BA degree to be worth. When i was trying to educate myself with a biology major and chemistry minor as an undergrad I carried 21-23 credit hours per semester (3 lab courses every semester).- almost unheard of today with 12-15 the norm! Yes, I graduated in 4 years. The mandatory arts and humanities actually enhanced my education, IMO. I'm now retired from a surgical specialty. Back in the early 60s we were actually challenged not indoctrinated

Yes, however, that is no longer true, we were once offered an excellent education , but not today . The point of higher learning is supposed to be challenging, to learn independent thought, to gain the ability to have a genuine discussion rather than the imbecilic nonsense hate spewed out now,.......by both sides

I remember those times, I get your point exactly. To question everything is great policy, and I saw some of that in my earliest education. It did not last long. As the Leftists gained in power and control, only the weak-minded are allowed to speak-up, and anyone who stands out as intelligent must immediately be sent to the back of the class. If you dare to raise a fact or opinion, or even a question that went against the Marxist/Globalist Ideology, you will certainly be punished. Much worse in recent years with my kids just getting through! They actually had to put the PROPAGANDA LIES on the test papers, because that is what the professor demanded, or they would surely have failed! Today, their peers, the little skulls of mush accept the lies as current fact. Different times, and it's been going on 2-3 generations now - slowly. The Propaganda machine today is VAST, a nasty hybrid of Marxism and Fascism, with too much technology at their disposal. All is used to control, suppress, and separate people from responsibility and freedom. I miss my two best Doctors, they kept up to date on all aspects of Medicine, treatment options. They could quicly resolve issues. Today, each doctor is too specialized, and from what I've seen the Insurance Industry decides treatment, and prefers to keep the Doctors clueless - they follow a manual, not their own education, like the ones I had who retired! You cannot replace that.

I agree; it was no less than Aristotle who stressed the importance of a well rounded education, if memory serves. What I don't understand is why a course on critical thinking is not part of every curriculum. Of all my classes, I found that is the one I refer back to most.

Today's graduates wouldn't have the foggiest idea of who Aristotle was, or when and where he lived . If you told them Greece, they'd think he was a contemporary of John Travolta. Hell, they don't even know who the combatants were in the Revolutionary War through the Korean War. They KNOW Vietnam and its negatives , though. As to critical thinking, well, that has virtually disappeared from most curricula---just listen to what the lefty professor tells you and all is well.

I took a trade school class a few years ago. The students only wanted test info. Professor offered everyone in the class a C without any test but it had to be unanimous. Of course, I was the one to topple that. I wanted the trade.

Hey, don't you know that Women's studies can get you a job as head of the lesbian Department on campus and Africana Studies can get you a 250K job as head of the Black Department on campus. Those 2 degrees also can get you jobs as head of the Multicultual Department in the student unions. So you see, getting an engineering or science degree is not worth when you can claim to be a supporter of lesbian and negro rights.

Exactly right. There are plenty of opportunities for those with gender/race studies majors, whether it's in academia, diversity administrators, leftist non-profits, or as well paid agitators. The Racial Grievance Industry has been very successful at being self-sustaining. There are many wealthy progressives like Soros who are willing to provide funds. Under Obama, the feds were lavishly funding them, too.

So, if I opened a school offering a major in Slave Camp Management with a minor in Cramatory Oven Care, it would be okay with you Drains? The school I graduated from (Charlie Chan U) had only one requirement to graduate. In summary it was this: Turn brain on before throwing mouth in gear

I hired a recent college grad years ago in construction. He asked what he should do. I answered "grab a broom, start cleaning up".He reminded me he was a graduate of college. I apologized and had to show em how

I guess that's not to valuable degree, if you have to live in your parents basement. I have two girls with degrees and they never lived with me again after they graduated from the Va. Tech. Have great jobs, married well, and now their kids go to Universities too. No problems with my grand kids, they all are doing well, and I'm right behind, making sure they make their parents and grand-parents proud, since we are investing our money on their education.

I worked 40 hours per week and went to school at night on the GI Bill. I missed out on the "total" college exeprience since most of the window smashing and setting cars on fire sessions were scheduled during my work hours.

Same here. I was married and had to spectate over the mindless rioting going on, especially since I was an Engineering student. Work full time, do as much coursework as possible, school in the summer recess, rinse and repeat for four years.

Yes they have... foreign students studying engineering are receiving more jobs after they graduate, because the government is giving special deals to companies to hire them first. The government is screwing our own American graduates.

And another thing, remember when Trump first put the travel ban on six terrorist-prone countries.... I was listening to t.v. and there was a MUSLIM IRANIAN GRADUATE STUDENT WHO WAS BLOCKED.. temporarily, unfortunately and was complaining on t.v. GUESS WHAT HIS MAJOR WAS: Aeronautical Engineering. Just what we need is another MUSLIM IRANIAN pilot to fly into another tower.

Why in the hell are they allowing IRANIANS into our universities anyway?

That's not true, idiot. The OPT program allows companies not to pay SS or Medicare costs for foreign students for 3 years, a huge savings for employers. And the OPT program includes not just engineering or computer positions but nursing and technician jobs. Last year, almost 330,000 foreign students were hired via the OPT program.

My question was simply "who do you think is funding these so called special deals to companies?

The answer is, simpleton, the American taxpayer and non participating companies who are taxed to fund the SS and Medicare programs.

But since your brought it up. SS and Medicare taxes are monies paid by employees and employers into SS and Medicare for the benefit of the individual employee once they reach retirement age. Since these foreign students are not citizens, they are not eligible or SS or Medicare so why would anyone expect a company to collect payments from them for programs that they are no eligible to participate in.